Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Have you ever dreamed of being successful but was clueless on how to go about it? Some people drift day-to-day almost daydreaming of success and achieving their dreams but wander aimlessly with no plan/blueprint on how to proceed to find success in whatever their endeavors.

Well wonder no more! Check out Arnold Schwarzenegger's Six Secrets to Success. Below you will find in the first half of this blog which will isolate just Arnold's Six Secrets of Success which was from a Commencement speech he gave in 2009. The latter half will be the full video and transcript for your reference. It contains some funny moments not included in the below video.

Read/Watch/Listen on!

Nice video put together with inspiring images of Arnold Schwarzenegger and includes subtitles

6 Secrets To Success By Arnold Schwarzenegger

1. Trust yourself

Trust
yourself, dig deep down and ask yourself: "Who do you want to be?". Not
what, but who. Not what your parents or teachers wants you to be, but
you! Figure out for yourself, what makes you happy, no matter how crazy
it may sound to the people.

2. Break the rules

We have so many rules in life about everything, break the rules! It
is impossible to be a true original if you to well behaved and not break
the rules, you have to think outside the box. What is the point of
being on this world if all you want is to be liked by everyone. The only
way that I ever got any place was by breaking some of the rules

3. Don’t be afraid to fail

Anything that I’ve ever attempted I was always willing to fail. You
can’t always win, but don’t be afraid of making decisions. You can’t be
paralyzed by fear of failure or you will never push yourself. You keep
pushing because you believe in yourself and in your vision and you know
that it is the right thing to do, success will come.

4. Don’t listen to the naysayers

How many times have you heard: you can’t do this, you can’t do that.
It has never been done before. I love it when someone says that no one
has ever done that before, because that means that if I do it, that
means that I am the first one that has done it. Pay no attention to
people that say that it can’t be done.

5. Work your butt off!

Leaving no stone unturned. Muhammad Ali, one of my greatest hero’s
had a great line when he was asked: "How many sit ups do you do?". He
said: "I don’t count my sit-ups, I only start counting when it starts
hurting, that is when I start counting, because then it really counts,
that’s what makes you a champion." That’s the way it is with everything,
no pain, no gain!

Someone out there at the same time is working hard, someone is
getting smarter, remember that! I’ve always figured out that there is 24
hours a day, you sleep 6 hours. That means you have 18 hours left. I
know that some of you out there answers: "Wait a minute I sleep 8 or 9
hours." Well, then sleep faster I recommend.

6. Giving back

Whatever path that you take in your life, you must always find time
to give something back. Give something back to your community, give
something back to your state or your country. Reaching out and helping
people will bring you more satisfaction than everything else you’ve ever
done!

There you have it! A roadmap to Success from arguably one of the most successful actors in Hollywood history. Now go work your butt off!

In this section is the full video as well as a transcript for your reference.

On May 15, 2009, at the University of Southern California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor and politician (38th Governor of California), gave the Commencement Speech. Below is the full video of the Speech as well as the Transcript.

SPEECH TRANSCRIPT

Well, thank you very much. (Applause) Hello, everybody. What a great
introduction, what a wonderful thing. What a great, great welcome I'm
getting here, so thank you very much. I mean, I haven't heard applause
like that since I announced that I was going to stop acting. (Applause)

But anyway, it is really terrific to see here so many graduate students
and undergraduate students graduating here today. I heard that there are
4,500 graduating here today, undergraduate students, so this is
fantastic. There are 2,200 men, 2,300 women and five have listed
yourselves as undecided. (Applause)

So this is really a great, great bunch of people here, I love it. But
seriously, President Sample, trustees, faculty, family, friends and
graduates, it is a tremendous privilege to stand before you this
morning. There's nothing that I enjoy more than celebrating great
achievements. And I don't just mean your parents celebrating never
having to pay another tuition bill, that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about just celebrating the great accomplishment. So let me
congratulate the Trojan class of 2009 on your graduation from one of the
finest universities in the world. Let's give our graduates a tremendous
round of applause. What a special day, what a great accomplishment.
(Applause)

Now, this an equally special day, of course, for the parents, for the
grandparents, siblings and other family members whose support made all
of this today possible. And let's not forget, of course, the professors,
those dedicated individuals who taught you, who came up with exciting
ways to share their vast wisdom, knowledge and experience with you.

And I must also say thank you to President Sample for honoring me with
this fantastic degree. Thank you very much. Wow, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Doctor of Humane Letters. I love it. (Applause) But, of course, I
noticed that it wasn't a doctorate in film or in cinema or in acting. I
wonder why?

But anyway, that's OK. I take whatever I can get. But maybe now since
I'm the doctor, I can go back up to Sacramento and maybe now the
Legislature will finally listen to me. (Applause) But anyway, I stand
before you today not just as Dr. Schwarzenegger or as Governor
Schwarzenegger, or as The Terminator, or as Conan the Barbarian, but
also as a proud new member of this Trojan family.

Now, some of you may know that my daughter just completed her freshman
year right here. One of the most exciting things for me has been to
learn about the great traditions that make this university so wonderful
and so special.

My daughter told me all about, for instance, the Victory Bell. She sat
me down and she told me it weighs 295 pounds and how the winner of the
annual football game between USC and UCLA takes this bell and gets to
paint it in the school colors. And I stopped her in the middle of
talking, I said, "Wait a minute, Katherine, back up a little bit. UCLA
has a football team?" (Applause)

Now, of course, my daughter's journey here at USC is just beginning, and
yours is ending. I know that you're a little bit stressed out right now
as you start this exciting new chapter in your lives. Some people say
it is scary to leave the comfort of the university and to go out into
the cold, hard world.

But I have to tell you something; I think this is a bunch of nonsense
because after all, this is America. This is the greatest country on
earth, with the greatest opportunities. (Applause) It is one thing if
you were born in Afghanistan or in Swat Valley in Pakistan where you'd
be forced to join the Taliban or be killed. Now, then I would say yes,
that is a little bit scary.

But this, this is going to be a piece of cake for you, trust me. You
live in America and you're prepared for the future with this tremendous
education you have gotten here at one of the greatest universities in
the world. This is going to be exciting, it's a great adventure and this
is a new phase in your life. This is going to be awesome. (Applause)

Now, of course, this journey is not going to be without any setbacks,
failures or disappointments. That's just the way life is. But you're
ready and you are able, and you would not be here today with your
degrees and with your honors if you wouldn't be ready.

So now, of course, to help you along the way, I thought that the best
Schwarzenegger gift I could give you today is to give you a few of my
own personal ideas on how to be successful. And parents, I just want you
to know, maybe you should close your ears, you should plug your ears,
because maybe there a few things that you maybe won't like in what I
have to say.

But anyway, I can explain how I became successful and who I am today by
going through what I call Dr. Schwarzenegger's Six Rules of Success.
(Applause)

Now, of course, people ask me all the time, they say to me, "What is the
secret to success?" And I give them always the short version. I say,
"Number one, come to America. Number two, work your butt off. And number
three, marry a Kennedy." (Applause)

But anyway, those are the short rules. Now today, I'm going to give you
the six rules of success. But before I start, I just wanted to say these
are my rules. I think that they can apply to anyone, but that is for
you to decide, because not everyone is the same. There are some people
that just like to kick back and coast through life and others want to be
very intense and want to be number one and want to be successful. And
that's like me.

I always wanted to be very intense, I always wanted to be number one. I
took it very seriously, my career. So this was the same when I started
with bodybuilding. I didn't want to just be a bodybuilding champion, I
wanted to be the best bodybuilder of all time. The same was in the
movies. I didn't want to just be a movie star; I wanted to be a great
movie star that is the highest paid movie star and have above-the-title
billing.

And so this intensity always paid off for me, this commitment always paid off for me. So here are some of the rules.

The first rule is: Trust yourself. Arnold
Schwarzenegger as Conan the BarbarianAnd what I mean by that is, so many
young people are getting so much advice from their parents and from
their teachers and from everyone. But what is most important is that you
have to dig deep down, dig deep down and ask yourselves, who do you
want to be? Not what, but who.

And I'm talking about not what your parents and teachers want you to be,
but you. I’m talking about figuring out for yourselves what makes you
happy, no matter how crazy it may sound to other people.

I was lucky growing up because I did not have television or didn't have
telephones, I didn't have the computers and the iPods. And, of course,
Twitter was then something that birds did outside the window. I didn't
have all these distractions and all this.

I spent a lot of time by myself, so I could figure out and listen to what is inside my heart and inside my head.

And I recognized very quickly that inside my head and heart were a
burning desire to leave my small village in Austria -- not that there
was something wrong with Austria, it's a beautiful country. But I wanted
to leave that little place and I wanted to be part of something big,
the United States of America, a powerful nation, the place where dreams
can come true.

I knew when I came over here I could realize my dreams. And I decided
that the best way for me to come to America was to become a bodybuilding
champion, because I knew that was ticket the instant that I saw a
magazine cover of my idol, Reg Park. He was Mr. Universe, he was
starring in Hercules movies, he looked strong and powerful, he was so
confident.

So when I found out how he got that way I became obsessed, and I went
home and I said to my family, "I want to be a bodybuilding champion."

Now, you can imagine how that went over in my home in Austria. My
parents, they couldn't believe it. They would have been just happy if I
would have become a police officer like my father, or married someone
like Heidi, had a bunch of kids and ran around like the von Trapp family
in Sound of Music.

That's what my family had in mind for me, but something else burned
inside me. Something burned inside me. I wanted to be different; I was
determined to be unique. I was driven to think big and to dream big.
Everyone else thought that I was crazy. My friends said, "If you want to
be a champion in a sport, why don't you go and become a bicycle
champion or a skiing champion or a soccer champion? Those are the
Austrian sports."

But I didn't care. I wanted to be a bodybuilding champion and use that
to come to America, and use that to go into the movies and make millions
of dollars. So, of course, for extra motivation I read books on
strongmen and on bodybuilding and looked at magazines. And one of the
things I did was, I decorated my bedroom wall.

Right next to my bed there was this big wall that I decorated all with
pictures. I hung up pictures of strongmen and bodybuilders and wrestlers
and boxers and so on. And I was so excited about this great decoration
that I took my mother to the bedroom and I showed her. And she shook her
head. She was absolutely in shock and tears started running down her
eyes.

And she called the doctor, she called our house doctor and she brought
him in and she explained to him, "There's something wrong here." She
looked at the wall with the doctor and she said, "Where did I go wrong? I
mean, all of Arnold's friends have pictures on the wall of girls, and
Arnold has all these men.

But it's not just men, they're half naked and they're oiled up with baby
oil. What is going on here? Where did I go wrong?" So you can imagine,
the doctor shook his head and he said, "There's nothing wrong. At this
age you have idols and you go and have those -- this is just quite
normal."

So this is rule number one. I wanted to become a champion; I was on a
mission. So rule number one is, of course, trust yourself, no matter how
and what anyone else thinks.

Rule number two is: Break the rules. We have so many
rules in life about everything. I say break the rules. Not the law, but
break the rules. My wife has a t-shirt that says, "Well-behaved women
rarely make history." Well, you know, I don't want to burst her bubble,
but the same is true with men.

It is impossible to be a maverick or a true original if you're too well
behaved and don't want to break the rules. You have to think outside the
box. That's what I believe. After all, what is the point of being on
this earth if all you want to do is be liked by everyone and avoid
trouble?

The only way that I ever got anyplace was by breaking some of the rules.
After all, I remember that after I was finished with my bodybuilding
career I wanted to get into acting and I wanted to be a star in films.
You can imagine what the agents said when I went to meet all those
agents. Everyone had the same line, that it can't be done, the rules are
different here. They said, "Look at your body. You have this huge
monstrous body, overly developed. That doesn't fit into the movies. You
don't understand.

This was 20 years ago, the Hercules movies. Now the little guys are in,
Dustin Hoffman, Woody Allen, Jack Nicholson." Before he gained weight,
of course, that is. But anyway, those are the guys that were in. And the
agents also complained about my accent. They said, "No one ever became a
star with an accent like that, especially not with a German accent.

And yes, I can imagine with your name, Arnold Schwartzenschnitzel, or
whatever the name, is, on a billboard. Yeah, that's going to draw a lot
of tickets and sell a lot of tickets. Yeah, right." So this is the kind
of negative attitude they had.

But I didn't listen to those rules, even though they were very nice and
they said, "Look, we can get you some bit parts. We can get you to be
playing a wrestler or a bouncer. Oh, maybe with your German accent we
can get you to be a Nazi officer in Hogan's Heroes or something like
that."

But I didn't listen to all this. Those were their rules, not my rules. I
was convinced I could do it if I worked as hard as I did in
bodybuilding, five hours a day. And I started getting to work, I started
taking acting classes. I took English classes, took speech classes,
dialogue classes. Accent removal classes I even took.

I remember running around saying, "A fine wine grows on the vine." You
see, because Germans have difficulties with the F and the W and V, so,
"A fine wine grows on the vine." I know what some of you are now saying,
is I hope that Arnold got his money back.

But let me tell you something, I had a good time doing those things and
it really helped me. And finally I broke through. I broke through and I
started getting the first parts in TV; Streets of San Francisco,
Lucille Ball hired me, I made Pumping Iron, Stay Hungry. And then I got
the big break in Conan the Barbarian. (Applause)

And there the director said, "If we wouldn't have Schwarzenegger, we
would have to build one." Now, think about that. And then, when I did
Terminator, "I'll be back," became one of the most famous lines in movie
history, all because of my crazy accent.

Now, think about it. The things that the agents said would be totally a
detriment and would make it impossible for me to get a job, all of a
sudden became an asset for me, all of those things, my accent, my body
and everything.

So it just shows to you, never listen to that you can't do something.
And, "You have to work your way up, of course, run for something else
first." I mean, it was the same when I ran for governor, the same lines,
that you have to work your way up, it can't be done. And then, of
course, I ran for governor and the rest, of course, is history.

They said you have to start with a small job as mayor and then as
assemblyman and then as lieutenant governor and then as governor. And
they said that's the way it works in a political career. I said, "I'm
not interested in a political career. I want to be a public servant. I
want to fix California's problems and bring people together and bring
the parties together.

So, like I said, I decided to run, I didn't pay attention to the rules.
And I made it and the rest is history. Which, of course, brings me to rule number three: Don't be afraid to fail. Anything
I've ever attempted, I was always willing to fail. In the movie
business, I remember, that you pick scripts. Many times you think this
is a wining script, but then, of course, you find out later on, when you
do the movie, that it didn't work and the movie goes in the toilet.

Now, we have seen my movies; I mean, Red Sonja, Hercules in New York,
Last Action Hero. Those movies went in the toilet. But that's OK,
because at the same time I made movies like Terminator and Conan and
True Lies and Predator and Twins that went through the roof.

So you can't always win, but don't afraid of making decisions.

You can't be paralyzed by fear of failure or you will never push
yourself. You keep pushing because you believe in yourself and in your
vision and you know that it is the right thing to do, and success will
come. So don't be afraid to fail.

Which brings me to rule number four, which is: Don’t listen to the naysayers.
How many times have you heard that you can't do this and you can't do
that and it's never been done before? Just imagine if Bill Gates had
quit when people said it can't be done.

I hear this all the time. As a matter of fact, I love it when someone
says that no one has ever done this before, because then when I do it
that means that I'm the first one that has done it. So pay no attention
to the people that say it can't be done.

I remember my mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, when she started
Special Olympics in 1968 people said that it would not work. The
experts, the doctors that specialized in mental disabilities and mental
retardation said, "It can't be done. You can't bring people out of their
institutions. You can't make them participate in sports, in jumping and
swimming and in running. They will hurt themselves, they will hurt each
other, they will drown in the pool."

Well, let me tell you something. Now, 40 years later, Special Olympics
is one of the greatest organizations, in 164 countries, dedicated to
people with mental disabilities and that are intellectually challenged.
(Applause)

And she did not take no for an answer. And the same is when you look at
Barack Obama. I mean, imagine, if he would have listened. (Applause) If
he would have listened to the naysayers he would have never run for
president. People said it couldn't be done, that he couldn't get
elected, that he couldn’t beat Hillary Clinton, that he would never win
the general election.

But he followed his own heart, he didn’t listen to the "You can't," and he changed the course of American history.

So over and over you see that. If I would have listened to the naysayers
I would still be in the Austrian Alps yodeling. (Laughter) I would
never have come to America. I would have never met my wonderful wife
Maria Shriver, I would have never had the wonderful four kids, I would
have never done Terminator, and I wouldn't be standing here in front of
you today as governor of the greatest state of the greatest country in
the world.

So I never listen that, "You can't." (Applause) I always listen to myself and say, "Yes, you can."

And that brings me to rule number five, which is the most
important rule of all: Work your butt off. You never want to fail
because you didn't work hard enough. I never wanted to lose a
competition or lose an election because I didn't work hard enough. I
always believed leaving no stone unturned.

Muhammad Ali, one of my great heroes, had a great line in the '70s when
he was asked, "How many sit-ups do you do?" He said, "I don't count my
sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. When I feel pain,
that's when I start counting, because that's when it really counts."

That's what makes you a champion. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten
Cop and that's the way it is with everything. No pain, no gain. So many
of those lessons that I apply in life I have learned from sports, let me
tell you, and especially that one. And let me tell you, it is important
to have fun in life, of course.

But when you're out there partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hard.

Someone is getting smarter and someone is winning. Just remember that.
Now, if you want to coast through life, don't pay attention to any of
those rules.

But if you want to win, there is absolutely no way around hard, hard work.

None of my rules, by the way, of success, will work unless you do. I've
always figured out that there 24 hours a day. You sleep six hours and
have 18 hours left. Now, I know there are some of you out there that say
well, wait a minute, I sleep eight hours or nine hours. Well, then,
just sleep faster, I would recommend. (Laughter)

Because you only need to sleep six hours and then you have 18 hours
left, and there are a lot of things you can accomplish. As a matter of
fact, Ed Turner used to say always, "Early to bed, early to rise, work
like hell and advertise."

And, of course, all of you know already those things, because otherwise
you wouldn't be sitting here today. Just remember, you can't climb the
ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.

And that takes me to rule number six, which is a very important rule: it's about giving back.
Whatever path that you take in your lives, you must always find time to
give something back, something back to your community, give something
back to your state or to your country.

My father-in-law, Sergeant Shriver -- who is a great American, a truly
great American who started the Peace Corps, the Job Corps, Legal Aid to
the Poor -- he said at Yale University to the students at a commencement
speech, "Tear down that mirror. Tear down that mirror that makes you
always look at yourself, and you will be able to look beyond that mirror
and you will see the millions of people that need your help."

And let me tell you something, reaching out and helping people will
bring you more satisfaction than anything else you have ever done. As a
matter of fact today, after having worked for Special Olympics and
having started After School Programs, I've promoted fitness, and now
with my job as governor, I can tell you, playing a game of chess with an
eight-year-old kid in an inner city school is far more exciting for me
than walking down another red carpet or a movie premiere.

So let me tell you, as you prepare to go off into the world, remember those six rules:

Trust yourself,

Break some rules,

Don't be afraid to fail,

Ignore the naysayers,

Work like hell, and

Give something back.

And now let me leave you with one final thought, and I will be brief, I
promise. This university was conceived in 1880, back when Los Angeles
was just a small frontier town. One hundred and twenty-five classes of
Trojans have gone before you. They have sat there, exactly where you sit
today, in good times and in bad, in times of war and in times of peace,
in times of great promise and in times of great uncertainty.

Through it all, this great country, this great state, this great
university, have stood tall and persevered. We are in tough times now
and there's a lot of uncertainty in the world. But there is one thing
certain; we'll be back. (Applause)

And we will back stronger and more prosperous than ever before, because
that is what California and America have always done. The ancient
Trojans were known for their fighting spirit, their refusal to give up,
their ability to overcome great odds.

So as you graduate today, never lose that optimism and that fighting
spirit. Never lose the spirit of Troy. Because remember, this is America
and you are USC Trojans, proud, strong and ready to soar.
Congratulations and God bless all of you. Thank you very much. Thank
you. (Applause)

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Slowly but surely I've implemented changes to the site's look and functionality. I'm sure you have noticed the changes.Ecstatic that I've finally been able to successfully update my site closer more in line with my vision of it.

Not sure if it will be the final look of the site or not, but the Sojourn of Septillion Steps with respect to the site's look has already taken quite a few steps beyond the first!

I will still be endeavoring to put up information I think will benefit your martial arts training as well as your self-defense. I sincerely thank you for visiting/reading!